“Therefore take heed... to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” (Acts 20:28)

According to the divine pattern, all appointments in the church should proceed from the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 14:21-23 no specific mention is made of laying on of hands. However, Scripture provides two strong reasons for believing that Paul and Barnabas did, in fact, lay hands on those whom they appointed as elders.

First, this appointment exactly answered to the two main purposes for which laying on of hands is used throughout Scripture. By it, the apostles endorsed and set apart the chosen leaders of the local congregation. At the same time they imparted to them the wisdom and authority they would need for their task.

Second, in 1 Timothy 5:17-22 Paul is giving Timothy a series of instructions on how to relate to the local elders. He concludes by saying: “Do not lay hands on anyone hastily.” Although this warning is appropriate for any of the various uses of laying on of hands, it seems probable that Paul is here referring to this ordinance primarily as a way of ordaining elders.

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This last week we examined the fourth of the foundation doctrines listed in Hebrews 6:1-2, which is called “laying on of hands.” It now remains for us to examine the last two doctrines in the list: resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.

The examination of these last two doctrines leads us into an altogether new realm of study. The four doctrines we have already considered have all been directly related to this present world and to the realm of time. However, in the study of the two doctrines now remaining, we are taken, by the revelation of God’s Word, out of this present world and beyond the realm of time into the realm of eternity. The stage where the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement will be enacted belongs not to time but to eternity.

Many people are confused by this word eternity. They think of eternity as being merely an immensely long period of time, beyond the power of the human mind to conceive. However, this is not correct. Eternity is not merely the endless extension of time. Eternity differs in its nature from time. Eternity is an altogether different realm, a different mode of being. Eternity is God’s own mode of being, the realm in which God Himself dwells.

In Genesis 21:33 and in Isaiah 40:28, God is called “the Everlasting God.”

In Psalms 90:2 Moses addresses God and says:

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

God Himself also defines His own eternal nature and realm.

“For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place.’” (Is. 57:15)

These scriptures reveal that eternity is an aspect of God’s own nature, the realm in which God has His being.

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However, the Scripture also warns us that this ordinance of laying hands upo

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